Tag: Kandhamal

India: Kandhamal Christians back in jail after temporary Christmas release

January 8, 2018 India India, Kandhamal

Two of seven Indian Christians who have spent nearly a decade in prison – convicted of murdering a Hindu leader whose death sparked the worst case of anti-Christian violence in India’s history – were granted temporary parole over the Christmas period to spend time with their families. Evidence seems to be . . . Read More

Indian Christmas: fear and Western ways

December 28, 2017 India Christmas, Hindu nationalism, India, Kandhamal, Madhya Pradesh

How will Christians under pressure for their faith celebrate Christmas? In the fifth of our series we hear from India. “Where is the joy? There is so much of fear now,” said AC Michael, a prominent Christian leader, when asked about the mood among Christians as they prepare for Christmas . . . Read More

India: Kandhamal victims wait, a year on, for government to obey Supreme Court

October 26, 2017 India Dalits, Hindu nationalism, India, Kandhamal, Odisha

In northeast India, local Christian leaders are calling on the Odisha state government to enforce a Supreme Court ruling that the compensation paid to victims of the 2008 Kandhamal violence, which left about 100 Christians dead, was “not enough”, reports Asia News. The August 2016 ruling ordered that Odisha should . . . Read More

India: ‘Kandhamal seven’ appeal hearings postponed

October 16, 2017 India Hindu nationalism, India, Kandhamal, Maoists, Odisha

Seven “innocent” Christians serving prison sentences for the 2008 murder of a Hindu leader in India’s eastern Odisha state have had their appeal hearings “once again” postponed, according to a Catholic journalist campaigning for their release. The seven men, who are from the Kandhamal district of Odisha, were convicted in . . . Read More

UPDATE: Compensation for family of Indian Christian couple shot dead in anti-Maoist crossfire

January 6, 2017 India Hindu nationalism, Hyderabad, Kandhamal, Maoists, Odisha, Police

Update 6 Jan. 2017: The Human Rights Commission of the eastern Indian state of Odisha has ordered the state government to pay one million rupees (US$14,720) in compensation to the six children of a Baptist couple shot dead allegedly by a federal paramilitary force in July 2015. Dhubaleswar Nayak, 50, and . . . Read More

India: Kerala chief minister calls for fresh probe into Kandhamal deaths

December 16, 2016 India Dalits, Hindu nationalism, Kandhamal, Odisha

The chief minister of the south Indian state of Kerala has called for a fresh probe into the 2008 murder of a Hindu leader, which sparked months of rioting, in which almost 100 Christians were killed. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was speaking on Tuesday (13 Dec.) at the launch of . . . Read More

Priests visit scene of anti-Christian violence

October 28, 2016 India India, Kandhamal, Narendra Modi, Odisha

Thirty-two priests from north-eastern India have visited the scene of the worst anti-Christian violence in India’s history, . Villages in the Kandhamal district of the eastern state of Odisha (formely Orissa) were the scene of a rash of violence in 2008, during which more than 100 Christians were murdered and . . . Read More

Freedom of religion or belief ‘the defining issue of our time’

September 16, 2016 Global News -- No Particular Country Angela Merkel, Boko Haram, Canada, Copts, Egypt, India, Iraq, Islamic State, Jan Figel, Kandhamal, Myanmar, New York, North Korea, Norway, Pakistan, Religious freedom, Saudi Arabia, Shahzad Masih, Shama Bibi, Syria

Over 100 parliamentarians from 60 countries met this week in Berlin for a series of workshops and seminars under the title, “An Embattled Right: Protecting and Promoting Freedom of Religion of Belief”. The second conference of this size after last year’s meeting in New York, it was organised by the . . . Read More

India Chief Justice: Lack of convictions over Kandhamal violence ‘very disturbing’

August 15, 2016 India Kandhamal, Odisha

India’s Supreme Court Chief Justice has said it is “very disturbing” that such a “large number” of the perpetrators of the worst case of anti-Christian violence in India’s history – in the Kandhamal district of Odisha (formerly Orissa), eastern India, in 2008 – have not yet been brought to justice. . . . Read More

Indian Supreme Court rules compensation for worst-ever anti-Christian violence ‘not enough’

August 4, 2016 India Hindu nationalism, Kandhamal, Odisha

India’s Supreme Court Chief Justice has ordered that adequate compensation has not yet been paid to the victims – in 2008 – of religiously-motivated violence by Hindus against Christians in the Kandhamal district of Odisha (formerly Orissa), eastern India. The success of the petition, brought by Raphel Cheenath, the local . . . Read More

Catching Our Eye